Hello and welcome to the last first blog post of the year! I’ve recently completed a project called “Dystopic Art”. Throughout this project we learnt the concepts of dystopian literature and how it applies to our world.

To start of we read a piece of dystopian literature. The novel I read was titled “Fahrenheit 451”. While reading this I took detailed notes to explain my analyzes on dystopian characteristics. To dive deeper into the learning I choose to connect to past project and the real-world. After each of the 3 sections in the book, I would converse with a group of people to hear there understandings of the content. 

With the book notes completed I moved forward with my next steps to create a final product. Since what we were creating was a piece of conceptual art, we had to understand what concept art is. To do this we looked at a variety of virtual museums, as well as google arts and culture. This aloud me to understand that it challenges the conventional definitions of art, focusing on the thought process behind the work rather than its visual form.

When starting on the creation of my piece I tried to embody the mindset I was in when I created my conceptual piece in the fear factor project. In my dystopia art I started with the ideation process creating a rough idea and turning it into a blue print. I’m proud of myself for sticking to my original idea, because I tend to keep brainstorming new things then loose the originality of my thoughts, like I did in the fear factor project. 

At first I started with the concepts of mirrors and the idea of manipulating lights to convey a bigger idea. I then thought to intertwine ideas from the book, specifically the four walls. This conceptual art piece explored the societal consequences of human behaviour, reflecting on issues such as censorship, consumerism, technological control, and mass culture. At its core, the work is a rectangular structure, symbolizing the world often ignored by society. The viewing gaps through which the piece is viewed represent hope—suggesting that by acknowledging our flaws, we can shape a better future.

To back up the information about my piece I crafted a annotated bibliography that included a summary of the book. Throughout this annotated bibliography I used research methods, such as the Boolean to help isolated the content. I made sure to include at least one source from each wall: censorship, consumerism, technological control and dehumanization. 

With the project coming to a bump emerge in my path. I was supposed to present my piece, but due to a pneumonia outbreak within my cohort I was sick for the week that the exhibition fell on. Even with this I overcame the physical and mental struggle to finalize my piece. 

Throughout this project I grew on my ability to creatively think, and develop big ideas that no only I could interpret, but so could others. I feel I also moved forward with my values from my VMV though using studying methods to effectively learn. I was very effective with my use of class time and that definitely helped with my progress while being sick. 

So to conclude, I believe the use of multiple sources, analogies and materials through my piece allowed me to answer the driving question, “How Can Art Shine a Spotlight on the Dark Sections of our Society?”. 

Thank you for reading this blog post! Now…what’s your opinion on concept art?

Alicia